LOVERRO: The quarterback, the coach and one memorable year

Sonny Jurgensen left a lot of good things behind when he died last week. Fond memories for thousands of Washington football fans listening to his radio calls. Amazing NFL film clips that capture the jaw-dropping magic of his passing skills. Heartfelt recollections from people who had the good fortune of knowing, or even just meeting, the great No. 9.

He also left behind one of the greatest “what-ifs” in Washington sports history — the unknowable what-might-have-been if only Jurgensen and Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi had had more time together.

In the history of the franchise, only the 2004 return of Joe Gibbs rivals the magnitude of the news in 1969 that Lombardi, who retired as the coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1968 after winning five NFL championships — including the first two Super Bowls — was coming to town. 

Lombardi spent a season in the Green Bay front office, but wanted to return to the sidelines, and Redskins owner Edward Bennett Williams wanted him so badly he offered Lombardi an ownership stake.

“Why did I choose Washington among offers from other cities?” Lombardi said at his introductory press conference at the Sheraton-Carlton. “Because it is the capital of the world. And I have some plans to make it the football capital.”

He made a reference to Jurgensen without naming him. “They have a great quarterback and great receivers,” Lombardi said.

Jurgensen was a great passer — he led the league in touchdowns (31) and passing yards (3,747) in 1967 in an All-Pro season and had 174 career touchdown passes. It was not translating to results on the field, though, as the Redskins had struggled with a 29-38-3 record since Jurgensen’s came to Washington in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1964 — even with great receivers Charley Taylor, Jerry Smith and Bobby Mitchell, who retired after the 1968 season.

Williams thought he had his Redskins coach when he hired former Cleveland Browns quarterback great Otto Graham, who coached at the Coast Guard Academy from 1959 to 1965. But Graham had a far easier time coaching cadets than NFL players — particularly Jurgensen, who had little respect for Graham’s coaching practices.

How little? Jurgensen sneaked out of the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, training camp one night and took Graham’s son Dewey with him.

“I knocked on Otto’s door and he is in his pajamas,” Jurgensen said. “He said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I was told to come here because I was out after bed check. He said, ‘What do you do that for? Who were you with?’ Right next to me behind the door was his son Dewey. I said, ‘I was with your boy Dewey.’ He was so mad. He kicked Dewey out of training camp. Dewey was just sitting outside when I came out of the back door and I said, ‘You want to go?’ He said, ‘Sure,’ and he went with me. There were a lot of nights of getting caught out.”

Jurgensen was known for missing bed checks as much as he was for hitting receivers. It is one of the reasons the Eagles were willing to trade him despite his success there, leading the NFL in passing twice. There was a lot of skepticism about how the strict disciplinarian Lombardi and the good-times Jurgensen would work together.

Turned out it was a football version of love at first sight.

“I recall my first meeting with him vividly,” Jurgensen said. “I sat down across from him and he said, ‘Man, I’ve heard some good things and some bad things about you, and I’m sure you heard some good and bad things about me. All I ask of you is to be yourself. I don’t want you to try to emulate anyone else and to be something you’re not, and we’ll get along fine. If you do anything that reflects on the Redskins in a derogatory manner, I’ll call you and talk to you about it privately. Any questions?’ That was it.”

There was a mutual respect between the two greats. 

Lombardi told Jurgensen, “’I’m going to be tougher on you than anyone else, because you’re the leader of the team.’ And he was, he was hard on me, and that was good. It set an example for the rest of the players. If he is on him, what’s he going to do with us? So everybody played hard.”

Center Len Hauss said Jurgensen embraced Lombardi’s discipline, though not everyone was a fan. “One day after practice, Sonny and I were talking, and Sonny looked at me and said, ‘Isn’t this great? Lombardi is the greatest coach I’ve ever seen. He kicks you in the butt and makes you give 100 percent. That’s what we need.’ I said, ‘Sonny, you need that, but he’s kicking me in the butt and I’m giving 110 percent anyway. I don’t need that.’ That was my attitude. I thought if I was already giving 110 percent, I really didn’t need that butt-kicking. But Sonny thought that was great, and that’s fine. Sonny had a great year under Lombardi.”

Jurgensen led the league in pass attempts (442), completions (274) and yardage (3,102) while throwing 22 touchdown passes, named to the first team All-Pro and getting votes for Most Valuable Player. This time, the team had a great year, by Redskins standards — 7-5-2, their first winning season in 14 years.

“It was so much fun, the times with him,” Jurgensen said. “He told me I was throwing the ball too quickly in our first practice up at Georgetown University. I said, ‘I’ve had to throw the ball very quickly to get rid of it.’ He said, ‘We’ll give you the best pass protection you’ve ever had.’ And that was it.

“We had a good year offensively and after the year he congratulated me for the season in front of the other coaches,” Jurgensen said. He said, ‘I appreciate how hard you’ve worked and the kind of year that you had. Next year you’ll complete 70 percent of the passes because you didn’t even know the system.’

“I said, ‘By the way, you said I was going to get the best pass protection I ever had,” Jurgensen said. “Look at how many times I got sacked.” He said, ‘Yeah, but you knew the personnel better than I did.’ And just walked out. That was the way he was. If he had been here, we would have completed 70 percent of our passes. Bart Starr (Lombardi’s Hall of Fame quarterback in Green Bay) told me that it was intense preparation, and it was so true. You were never surprised on the field, and he gave you a chance to win.”

But there was no next year. 

Lombardi was diagnosed with colon cancer in June 1970 and died on Sept. 3. There would be one lost year of Bill Austin as head coach, then George Allen arrived and within two years the Redskins were NFC champions. 

But the defensive-minded coach had no wish to help Jurgensen continue on the path of success that Lombardi laid out, and the two would feud until Jurgensen retired after the 1974 season.

The team went to the playoffs five out of the seven seasons during Allen’s time here. But Lombardi dealt in different currency. He brought championships. In case you hadn’t noticed, the trophy awarded to Super Bowl winners is the Lombardi Trophy. 

What could have followed 1969 might have eclipsed what Allen accomplished.

“I played for nine different head coaches but didn’t get a chance to get on the field with all nine because some were fired before we ever got on the field,” Jurgensen said. “Norm Van Brocklin in Philadelphia, they let him go while we were having meetings. (Joe) Kuharich traded me away before we ever got on the field.

“Nobody was close to Lombardi.”

Jurgensen always wondered what could have been.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.